


I Almost Lost You

by truth_renowned



Series: K-I-S-S-I-N-G [11]
Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: F/M, major angst, minor fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-01 08:49:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13994730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/truth_renowned/pseuds/truth_renowned
Summary: “Bomb! Front building! Clear out!”Peggy gasped.That was Daniel’s voice.





	I Almost Lost You

**Author's Note:**

> From a tumblr prompt: "I almost lost you" kiss.

The warehouse complex consisted of two buildings, one much smaller than the other. Peggy was in charge of the exteriors, with Daniel and three agents canvassing the interiors. An initial drive-around uncovered no one, but one could not be too careful when it came to HYDRA.

Was this one of their facilities? Daniel wasn't convinced, but Peggy’s informant hadn't steered them wrong before. She had cleared the exterior of the larger building and was heading toward the smaller when her walkie-talkie squawked, then: 

“Bomb! Front building! Clear out!”

Peggy gasped.

That was Daniel’s voice.

“Daniel, get out--”

The rest of her words were cut off when the force of the blast punched Peggy in the gut, shoving her off her feet and dropping her on the ground a few yards away.

“No!” 

She scrambled to her feet, ignoring the pain in her knee, the blood dripping down her leg. Running toward the rubble that was the front of the building, she clicked the button on her walker-talkie.

“Agents! Report in!”

“Fletcher,” her radio squawked. 

She sighed in relief. Fletcher and Daniel were going to clear the building together. They both must have gotten out.

“Is Sousa with you?” she asked.

“Negative, Director,” Fletcher replied. “He sent me to cover the bigger building with Harris.” A pause. “Shit. You don’t think--”

“Later,” Peggy snapped. “Everyone else, report in.”

Peggy listened as another two agents, Harris and Cady, responded in quick succession. Then… nothing.

“Sousa, report in,” she barked into the walkie-talkie.

Nothing.

“Sousa, report in!”

Still nothing. She lowered the radio.

“Bloody hell.” 

“Director, Harris and I are on our way.”

“Be careful, Fletcher,” Peggy warned. “If this building was wired, there’s a good change that one is, too.”

“Roger that. We just entered. We’ll retrace our steps.”

She reached the bombed building and ventured in. Most of the front wall remained standing but the door and window were blown out, splinters and glass shards littering the ground around her. 

“Daniel!”

 _Dammit, Daniel, answer me_ , she thought as she sidestepped shredded boxes and papers, table parts and other debris. Enough sunlight streamed in from the blown-out front to illuminate her way.

“Daniel!”

She assumed -- hoped was more like it -- that the initial explosion would have triggered any other bombs in the building, so she was safe to enter. Not that she wouldn’t enter anyway. At this point, she was concentrating on just one thing.

“Daniel!”

“Here,” came a weak reply.

She signed heavily. He was alive.

“Where are you?” she yelled.

“Back wall. Follow my voice. Something landed on my bad leg. I think Stark’s new prosthetic is scrap metal now.”

Then she saw him, on the ground, sitting up, with a large piece of wood draped over his bad leg, the end of it sitting right where the prosthetic socket would be situated. His once navy jacket was a drab gray, covered in dust. A streak of blood swathed half the length of his forehead. He looked tired and in pain. But he was alive.

“We’ll get you a new leg,” she said as she reached him. “Are you hurt elsewhere?”

“Other than my pride?” He smirked, but it came off more as a pained grimace. “I tried to get out but I'm pinned pretty good.”

She clicked on the walkie-talkie. “I need all agents in the smaller building right now. Agent down and under a collapsed beam. I need everyone here to move it.”

Various responses came, all in the affirmative.

She knelt next to him, brushing a stream of blood from his forehead. “You scared the hell out of me.”

“Sorry, boss. I’ll try not to blow myself up again.”

She scoffed before asking, “What happened?”

“The building was so small, I told Fletcher to go with Harris and cover the big one. It took me longer than I thought and I was almost done.” He lowered his gaze. “I tripped the bomb, Peggy. I stumbled, reached out to steady myself with the cane and triggered the detonation wire. It was at the front. I was able to get this far before…”

She could tell his limp was more pronounced than normal that morning, but that wasn't out of the ordinary. Mornings were the worst for him, stiff from lying in bed overnight. She saw him for a few minutes before the team headed out, but she was so focused on the mission, she didn't notice his discomfort. A boss wouldn't notice that. A wife should have.

“You couldn’t know there was a tripwire,” she said.

“Yes, I _should_ have known!” He calmed his voice when she flinched. “I should have known. I don’t know how I missed it when I first came in here.” He paused, shook his head. “I’m a professional. Or at least I was.”

“Daniel Sousa, you are more of a professional than any of the agents in SHIELD could ever dream to be. There is no better agent, no better strategic mind than you.”

He looked straight ahead. “I don’t need to be in the field to come up with strategies. And you know this isn’t the first time. Remember the Abbott case?” 

She shrugged. “That was a rough one for everyone.”

“I almost cost us the collar. Between that and today, what more do you need to see that I’m not fit for field work anymore?” He turned to her, his gaze raw. “And don’t answer that as my wife. Answer that as my superior. If it were any other agent, what would you do?”

“Your skills are--”

“Forget the skills. What would you do to any other agent who has two major flubs in the field within a month.”

“Daniel--”

“Director Carter,” he said, his tone cutting, “what would you do?”

“I…” She hesitated, not wanting to say what they both knew she should. “I would put you on probation.”

“Bullshit. You would pull me from the field. No questions asked.”

She swallowed. “You’re not just any agent.”

“I should be treated as one. Just as you should. If you weren’t field-worthy, I would expect you to do the right thing.”

She had no answer for that. They weren’t youngsters anymore, both being in their late forties, but they were far from being ready for retirement. However, he was right. If she were a danger in the field, she would be the first to admit it and step back.

“Daniel--”

She was interrupted by a man running in. Alan Fletcher, the youngest and most lithe of the three agents, made it to Peggy first. Bruce Harris, the balding ‘old man’ in the bullpen at the ripe age of thirty-two, arrived several seconds later.

“Cady was closest to the car, so I’m guessing he’s calling it in,” Fletcher said, motioning to Harris. “Get the other end of this.”

Both men bent down and tried to lift the beam. Grunts and groans filled the silence, but the beam didn’t move.

“Too heavy,” Harris said, out of breath. “We need Cady. He could lift all of us together, the big lug.”

“I heard that,” came a voice from the front of the building.

Stanley Cady was a big man, imposing, Peggy thought as he approached. He reminded her of Ray Krzeminski, only bigger. Not to mention, much nicer. He was quite soft-spoken with a smooth Southern accent and an even-tempered demeanor.

“Sorry I'm late to this shindig.” He nodded to Peggy. “Director, I called it in and told them to send an ambulance.”

Daniel shook his head. “I don't need an ambulance.”

“Yes, you do,” Peggy replied immediately. “And that's an order, Assistant Director Sousa.”

Cady pointed to the beam. “Gentlemen, take the end by the A.D. and I’ll get the other,” he said, then looked down at Daniel. “We’ll have this off you in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.”

Fletcher scrunched his sizable nose as he moved next to Harris. “What the hell does that mean, Cady?”

“How should I know? My mom used to say it. Ready?”

Harris and Fletcher nodded, and the three of them lifted the beam. It was slow-going; even Cady was grunting in exertion. Sirens sounded in the distance, getting closer by the second.

Finally, they lifted the beam enough for Daniel to shimmy his way out from underneath it, with Peggy’s help. The three men placed the beam out of the way, and Fletcher turned to Daniel.

“Uh, A.D.? That's not good.”

Fletcher was pointing to Daniel’s bad leg. Peggy held back a gasp. Daniel hadn't been that far off calling the prosthetic scrap metal. It was literally flattened in the middle. If that had been his good leg…

She met Daniel’s gaze, and he gave her a sideways smile.

“I’ve always told Stark his inventions were junk. I have proof now.”

“Daniel,” Peggy warned, refusing to smile though she wanted to. He always had the right words to lighten the mood, even when she knew he was in considerable pain.

Two male ambulance attendants, dressed all in white and carrying a stretcher, entered the building where the door used to be, then stopped immediately.

“Is it safe?” one asked.

“If you come straight toward me,” Peggy answered.

Both men slowly moved through the rubble, their faces telling her neither trusted her assessment of their safety.

One attendant mumbled something under his breath when he saw Daniel’s leg.

“It's a prosthetic,” Peggy said.

He let out a whistle. “I wondered why he was still conscious. Is your back hurt, sir?”

Daniel shook his head. “Just the leg. I might be able to stand if--”

“No,” Peggy and both attendants said simultaneously.

“You three should join a choir,” Daniel quipped.

One of the attendants knelt next to Daniel. “Don't move, sir. Let us do our job.”

With a heavy sigh, Daniel acquiesced. 

“I'm going in the ambulance,” Peggy announced, but Daniel shook his head.

“Peg, you're needed on scene.”

“Fletcher, Harris and Cady can handle it.”

“I'm sure the blast alerted NYPD,” Daniel answered as the men moved him onto the stretcher. “You should be here to smooth things over.”

Peggy opened her mouth to reply, then closed it. He was right. A blast in the middle of Manhattan wouldn't go unnoticed by the local authorities.

“Fine,” she said in a tone that let everyone know it was far from fine. “I'll meet you at the hospital as soon as I can.”

She squeezed Daniel’s hand as the ambulance attendants carried him off. Glancing back to the rubble, her three agents were looking at her, ready for their orders.

“Gentlemen, let’s get started,” she said, “and I don't have to reiterate to watch where you step.”

\--------

The click of Peggy’s heels echoed in the crisp, white hospital corridor. She’d snuck a peek at Daniel’s chart at the nurse’s station, and he had a nasty gash on his stump. Because of the dust and debris from the scene, they were worried about infection. The doctor’s notes stated he would not be able to wear a prosthetic until that healed. Peggy knew she was in for a fight, and honestly, she couldn’t blame him. She knew from experience that being stuck in a hospital bed felt like a fate worse than death. And an immobile Daniel was a very unhappy Daniel.

She opened the door to his room and looked in. The back of the bed was at a 45-degree angle, so he was propped up, eyes closed. The blood was cleaned from his face, leaving a slash starting in one of the creases in his forehead and disappearing under his hairline.

Daniel turned his head toward the door, his eyes fluttering open and a genuine smile brightening his face.

“Hi,” he said.

She approached the bed. “How are you?”

“Ready to get out of here.”

“Soon,” she replied, taking his hand. “The team is sifting through the rubble but they won’t find anything. Whatever was in there likely was incinerated in the explosion.”

“Thanks to me.”

“No,” she said, squeezing his hand. “It could have been any of us. I talked to Fletcher before coming in here. The other building was booby-trapped as well. Very sophisticated devices with tripwires that were almost invisible to the naked eye.”

He shrugged, obviously unconvinced, but he didn’t respond.

“I thought about what you said, though,” she said softly.

She caught the silent ‘And what did you decide?’ in his arched eyebrow.

“You’re right,” she continued. “Your days in the field are numbered.”

“They should be at zero.”

She sighed. “Fine, yes. You are out of field operations, effective immediately.”

He nodded. “Good.”

“However, you will continue as the head of training.”

“But field training--”

“Will be handled by a senior agent of your choosing, though I think Fletcher would be a good candidate.”

“Agreed,” he replied. 

“And you will be in charge of creating a new unit.”

He cocked his head, confused, but in a few seconds, his lips curled into a smile. “ARPANET?”

She nodded. “After that visit to Stanford last month, I’m intrigued.” 

“So am I. I think this may be the future, Peg. Computers talking to each other across the country, maybe even across the world.”

She reveled in watching his entire demeanor change from melancholy to enthusiastic just in his face. He loved all of this new technology, acting like a child at Christmas.

“I’m not sure about that,” she said, “but the Department of Defense is sinking money into it, so there must be something there. I want SHIELD to be in on it. We both know that as soon as the good guys come up with a new technology, the bad guys will find a way to exploit it. And HYDRA may already be onto this. I want you to forge a closer relationship with the ARPANET folks, maybe even get some of them to work for us.”

“I'll get to work on it as soon as I get outta here.” He squeezed her hand. “Thank you, Peg.”

“Nothing to thank me for,” she said matter-of-factly. “You’re going to be working your skivvies off.”

“You would hope,” he said with a smirk.

“I don’t need to hope your skivvies off.”

He chuckled. “This is true.” 

She leaned down, giving him a soft, lingering kiss, trying to convey just how scared she was that she'd almost lost him. She didn't know what she would do if he...

“I love you, Daniel.” She wasn't ready for the emotions to bubble up, bringing tears to her eyes and a lump to her throat. “When I heard that blast…”

Daniel cupped her cheek, his thumb brushing away a stray tear.

“I just want my family safe,” she added in a thickened voice.

“I am safe. We all are.” He lightly laughed. “Beth would call you Mama Bear right now.”

That made Peggy smile. Their daughter had nicknamed her that after Daniel read Goldilocks and The Three Bears to her when she was little. Now nineteen, Beth still called Peggy that when she was acting overprotective, which, when it came to her children, was most of the time.

“I suppose you've ratted me out to the kids?” Daniel asked.

“Beth wanted to come home from university but I told her not to. I wasn't able to talk to Michael personally. His unit was out on maneuvers, but I left word with his C.O.”

“He still at Lampang?”

“As far as I know.”

Peggy didn't like talking about Michael being overseas. Though he was stationed in Thailand with his Coast Guard unit, that was still too close to Vietnam for her taste. Military service was important to both Peggy and Daniel, but it was very different when your child was sent off to war.

“So, boss,” he said, knowing she hated him calling her that, “when are you going to spring me from here?”

“That's up to your doctor.” She grinned at his scowl. “What's your hurry? I'm sure you've charmed all the nurses for more pillows and extra helpings of mashed potatoes.”

“There's only one woman I want to charm.”

“You have, darling.” She bent down and kissed him again. “For more than twenty years.”

**Author's Note:**

>  **Historical Notes:**
> 
> More information about ARPANET: <https://www.livescience.com/20727-internet-history.html>
> 
> More information about Station Lampang: <http://coastguard.dodlive.mil/2010/02/history-%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%80%9C-the-legacy-of-loran/>


End file.
